FIFA To Cover Seamus Coleman’s Wage As He Recovers From Serious Injury

FIFA have confirmed they will cover Seamus Coleman’s £50,000-a-week wage, whilst he recovers from an horrific leg break suffered during Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualifier against Wales, at the Aviva Stadium Saturday night.

The 28-year-old’s leg broke in two places by an horrendous tackle from Wales defender Neil Taylor causing the Everton defender to be taken to hospital by ambulance where he underwent successful surgery on Saturday to pin the tibia and fibula in his right leg.

Whilst the Ireland skipper is expected to make a full recovery, he is not expected to return to action until 2018, meaning he will not be available for Ireland’s Russia 2018 qualification bid.

Everton will be able to claim back Coleman’s wage through the Fifa Club Protection Programme which was set up in 2012 and enables teams to claim up to €143,836-a-week (£112,731) of a player’s wages if injured while on international duty.

During his pre-match press conference ahead of Tuesday night’s friendly against Iceland, O’Neil spoke of Coleman’s positivity and how he is slowly coming to terns with the injury and the effect of it.

‘I think he’s just beginning to come to terms with it.

‘I saw him yesterday and he’s still pretty down about it. He’s not in as much pain, the operation went very well and it’s just a matter of coming to terms with it.

‘The first reaction is that you know you have lost a great player for a start, and you know the sort of pain that he’s going to be going through, obviously the immediate pain and then his recovery,” he continued.

‘It’s a major blow, not only for the player, but obviously for his family, people who were at the game watching that.

‘But as Seamus mentioned to me the other day, he just said that it has happened now, he can’t do anything about it and it’s what he does now in the next few months that is very, very important.’